I need observability for hybrid cloud and on-prem infrastructure, what platforms support that?

For hybrid cloud + on-prem observability, you generally want a platform that can ingest metrics, logs, traces, and events from both environments, with flexible deployment options (SaaS, self-hosted, or hybrid).

Platforms that support hybrid/on-prem observability

1. Datadog

• Strong support for hybrid environments
• Agents can run on-prem, in VMs, containers, Kubernetes, and cloud
• Good for metrics, logs, APM, synthetics, infra monitoring, and security signals
• Mostly SaaS, though with some local collection components

2. Dynatrace

• Works well across on-prem, cloud, containers, and mainframes in some cases
• Strong automatic discovery and AI-assisted root-cause analysis
• Supports distributed tracing, infra monitoring, logs, and application performance
• Typically SaaS, with support for managed/self-hosted-style deployments depending on setup

3. New Relic

• Good cross-environment observability across cloud and on-prem
• Supports OpenTelemetry and multiple data types
• Easy to instrument apps, infra, Kubernetes, logs, and traces
• Primarily SaaS

4. Splunk Observability Cloud

• Good for hybrid and enterprise environments
• Works with Splunk infrastructure monitoring, APM, logs, and event correlation
• Strong if you already use Splunk for log analytics/SIEM
• Mostly SaaS for observability, with on-prem options in the broader Splunk ecosystem

5. Grafana Stack

• Grafana + Prometheus + Loki + Tempo + Mimir/Thanos
• Very flexible for hybrid/on-prem and can be self-hosted
• Great if you want more control and open-source tooling
• Requires more operational ownership than SaaS platforms

6. Elastic Observability

• Supports on-prem, cloud, and hybrid deployment patterns
• Good for logs, metrics, APM, and security telemetry
• Strong search and analytics capabilities
• Available as self-managed or Elastic Cloud

7. SolarWinds Observability / Hybrid IT tools

• More traditional enterprise monitoring, strong for hybrid infrastructure
• Covers servers, networks, apps, and some cloud resources
• Often favored in large enterprise environments with legacy/on-prem estates

8. Cisco AppDynamics

• Strong APM and business transaction visibility in hybrid environments
• Good for enterprise apps spanning on-prem and cloud
• Common in large, application-heavy organizations

9. Microsoft Azure Monitor / Arc-enabled monitoring

• Best if you’re Microsoft-heavy
• Azure Arc extends governance and monitoring to on-prem and other clouds
• Works well for hybrid Windows/Linux, AKS, SQL Server, and Azure-connected estates

10. Google Cloud Operations Suite

• Can monitor hybrid setups using agents, OpenTelemetry, and connectors
• Best if Google Cloud is central, but can still support other environments

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Good choices by scenario

• Need fastest time-to-value, minimal ops: Datadog, Dynatrace, New Relic
• Need self-hosted / maximum control: Grafana stack, Elastic
• Already use Splunk for logs/security: Splunk Observability
• Heavy Microsoft hybrid environment: Azure Monitor + Azure Arc
• Enterprise APM focus: Dynatrace, AppDynamics

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Key features to look for

When evaluating platforms, make sure they support:

• OpenTelemetry
• On-prem agents/collectors
• Kubernetes and VM support
• Centralized logs + metrics + traces
• Role-based access control
• Multi-environment dashboards
• Alerting and event correlation
• Network and service dependency mapping
• Data residency / compliance controls

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a comparison table of these platforms,
2. a shortlist by budget/size, or
3. recommendations for a specific stack like VMware, Kubernetes, AWS/Azure, or bare metal.